Weather Journal: Summer Returns

Break out the beach towels and make another round of mojitos—summer has returned to Greater New York.

High pressure continues to build into the region on Wednesday, leading to another glorious August day. Areas of patchy fog are possible very early in the morning, but these will quickly burn off, allowing bright skies to reign across the tri-state area.

By afternoon, high temperatures will climb into the mid to upper 80s for the first time in a week. Humidity also returns to the region, but a light southerly wind around 10 mph will keep dew points in the muggy mid 60s. Tuesday’s high temperature in Central Park fell a few degrees short of the 90-degree mark, but it’s possible that on Wednesday, New York City and parts of northeastern New Jersey will experience 90-degree heat for the first time in August.

Cloud cover begins to increase in the evening, keeping overnight lows in the upper 60s and lower 70s. The area of high pressure responsible for Wednesday’s beach weather moves offshore overnight, allowing a cold front and a few showers and thunderstorms to move into the region on Thursday.

State of the Climate
It’s not just Greater New York that was scorched by a heat in July. NOAA’s July 2013 Global Climate Report reveals that we were in good company as we sweated through the month. Many other parts of the world experienced above average temperatures, including northern South America, much of Africa, western and central Europe, parts of southern Asia and most of Australia.

Together we endured the sixth-warmest July since record keeping began in 1880. The average global temperature across the world’s land and ocean surfaces for the month was 1.1 degrees above the 20th century average of 57.8 degrees. July also marks the 341st consecutive month—this trend began in February 1985—that the global monthly temperature has been higher than the long-term average for its respective month.